Its a common knowledge – Chinese restaurant is not complete without a bubbling tankful of grouper. Asia’s most demanded reef fish, grouper fetches up to P6.000 per piece in Hong Kong and Singapore. In the blockbuster movie, Drunken Master, steamed grouper was one of the many dishes Jackie Chan’s character requests during an attempted meal-theft. Most of the fish comes from the Philippines, as the country is considered the center of the Coral Triangle, a region between the Pacific and Indian Oceans that harbors 75 percent of all known species of plants and animals that thrive among coral reefs.

Tacio, H. (2013, March 8). Lapu-lapu facing extinction. The Daily Guardian, p. 5.